next »

[Benjamming]

Update 3

Mid week update! A bunch of this stuff was in progress before, but finally clicked into place recently :D.

Rounded edges to platforms - yay!

Even the plants are jiggly now!

Dressed levels are coming along nicely - the night/hard platform area is in too - any feedback?

[TonyManfredonia]

One thing I've always loved in games is when the character/player can cause the surrounding environment to move. AKA Walking through brush, plants, etc. It truly goes a long way to have the world feel alive!

[io3 creations]

Interesting idea.


In this image, while passing by plants looks good, I'd prefer if the plants spread out when the character is landing on them.  More specifically, each plant's location relative to the character's center could determine the movement direction - e.g. similar to stepping on grass.  However, If the character is landing and moving horizontally, then that speed would influence the plant movement direction more than the character's center (depending on speed).

[Benjamming]

One thing I've always loved in games is when the character/player can cause the surrounding environment to move. AKA Walking through brush, plants, etc. It truly goes a long way to have the world feel alive!

We love it too! Ditto did a great talk about it, "

"

In this image, while passing by plants looks good, I'd prefer if the plants spread out when the character is landing on them.  More specifically, each plant's location relative to the character's center could determine the movement direction - e.g. similar to stepping on grass.  However, If the character is landing and moving horizontally, then that speed would influence the plant movement direction more than the character's center (depending on speed).

Great idea! Will add it to the to do list

[Benjamming]

Update 4

Getting pretty close to having the art fully implemented on top of our levels.

We've given our little character a bouncy face again, and added some parrallax in the levels.

[Benjamming]

Update 5

We're showing the game at South Africa's version of PAX/Gamescome - rAge - this week so we're doing a bunch of juice/polish stuff.

Transitions from overworld to levels.

We've also worked a bit on the feedback for collecting collectibles in the levels, and giving feedback to that in the overworld. The flowers pop up when an area is complete - will probably add to this effect.

We also iterated on the eyes of the character so it actually moves based on the current animation now. Adorable right?

[TonyManfredonia]

That overworld to level transition = 

So awesome!!!

[flipswitchx]

This is very weird-cool!   Keep up the good work

[Benjamming]

That overworld to level transition =  Who, Me? Who, Me? Who, Me?

Ha thanks! We think we can make it even cooler!

This is very weird-cool! Hand Clap Smiley

"Weird-cool" is the best compliment ever! Thanks so much! :D

[Benjamming]

Hey all! We've been a bit quiet while we were crunching away to get an expo build ready.

Showing the game to all the rAge expo goers went really well, though - so many people asked us when they could buy the game! :D

All the local games press that played the game really loved it. The best coverage so far (some of it is still coming) is over on IGN Africa where they said:

Semblance[...]has the potential to be huge. Like globally huge! It’s simple, smart, stars an adorable character, Squish, and features a gorgeous art style. The overall effect is something like Abe’s Oddysee meets Samurai Jack.

Pretty motivating stuff! We'll be posting a demo here by the end of the week!

[io3 creations]

Sounds great! ~Both the reception and the upcoming demo

[Benjamming]

Update 6

Hey all! We've been doing a bunch of polish work - we won't detail exactly what. Instead we'll just let you play!

Any and all feedback is welcome! This is essentially (more or less) a vertical slice of the game. We have a bunch more mechanics and story stuff we'll be adding over the next while. Have at it!

Windows
Mac

[Benjamming]

Update 7

We made a little gameplay video so people can get a sense of the gameplay and sounds/atmosphere.





We're diving into more gameplay content for the rest of the year - will post soon!

[alvarop]

This looks very unique and promising. I'm wondering if it will fall into the "this is deformable" vs "this isn't" design scheme that kind of puts the puzzle construction mechanics way too forward or if you're gonna allow for a lot of player agency.

[Benjamming]

This looks very unique and promising. I'm wondering if it will fall into the "this is deformable" vs "this isn't" design scheme that kind of puts the puzzle construction mechanics way too forward or if you're gonna allow for a lot of player agency.

It does fall into that scheme right now, but the hard material also deforms your character, while the soft material can be deformed. So seeing certain materials in a puzzle doesn't always imply the correct answer. Although I do agree with you. Right now we restrict the amount you can deform a platform in a certain area - just while we figure out some technical and design things (how to make infinite deformation look good).

I would like to provide a ton of player agency, yeah. Especially in later puzzles. The deformation mechanic has great utility, so players can often solve puzzles in multiple ways, which is great.

[Pixel Noise]

Great video - love the look of the gameplay!

[alvarop]

This looks very unique and promising. I'm wondering if it will fall into the "this is deformable" vs "this isn't" design scheme that kind of puts the puzzle construction mechanics way too forward or if you're gonna allow for a lot of player agency.

It does fall into that scheme right now, but the hard material also deforms your character, while the soft material can be deformed. So seeing certain materials in a puzzle doesn't always imply the correct answer. Although I do agree with you. Right now we restrict the amount you can deform a platform in a certain area - just while we figure out some technical and design things (how to make infinite deformation look good).

I would like to provide a ton of player agency, yeah. Especially in later puzzles. The deformation mechanic has great utility, so players can often solve puzzles in multiple ways, which is great.

I really like the sound of this :D If you have time, can you tell us about some design challenges that you faced to make these mechanics work?

[Benjamming]

Been a bit quiet our side because of doing business stuff!

Update 8

We tried out a new way for the spikes to interact with the deformable terrain.

We've also been trying out some new level elements where your shape matters.

Bouncy surfaces:

Air/Wind

[wuuthrer]

I really like this mechanic of landscape shaping. This is great because it feels very intuitive and also opens a lot of possibilities.

Keep it up! :]

[Benjamming]

Insert Quote
I really like this mechanic of landscape shaping. This is great because it feels very intuitive and also opens a lot of possibilities.

Thanks!